Wishing You a Merry Appa Ka BAR!!!

That makes no sense what so ever. But I'm in Indonesia, It's Christmas and I am totally Merry. Although I am in a culture that doesn't really celebrate Christmas, Beryl (Another Perth Exchange Participant) and I managed to have an awesome Christmas.

It all started with a really nice Christmas Eve with Friends:

I also went swimming that day in the pool at the hotel down the street, so I am a little bit burnt. Christmas Eve was really nice as we all came to this really expensive house and chilled. The house belonged to this very lovely elderly woman who is part of the host family program AIESEC Bandung runs. However because she has been sick lately hasn't taken in any interns. Her house is HUGE and we took heaps of photos.

We had dinner at this satay kebab place. It smelled really good but I just had some ice cream :)
When Christmas Day hit, it was time for my Host Family to open the presents I got for them and for me to open the presents they got me. They gave me a very beautiful shawl with intricate designs and a awesome looking shirt. I got the family Pictionary. And my Host Sister a silver bangle. They've been asking me to teach them English so I got them Pictionary to speed up the process. I'm starting to think, maybe I should have gotten them Monopoly, but that game is so long winded and sometimes uber boring.

After Lunch it was off to Paris Van Java, the biggest Mall in Bandung. A photo of this can be seen in an earlier blog where I am standing in a sunflower garden. I went with Beryl. When we eventually got there. And I say eventually because traffic was so bad, for what was a 15 minute journey by Taxi, took us an hour. When we eventually got there, the Taxi driver didn't have enough change so we ended up giving him 100,000 Rp (RIPPED OFF!), should have told him to bugger off. Paris Van Java was decorated with a lot of Christmas Decorations. It was really pretty and Beryl and I had a stella of a time taking pictures.

It was either watch a movie or ICE SKATING... hmmm... we looked at the movie and with only Harry Potter and a few unknown Kid Movies to see we looked at each other and made our way to where we thought the Ice Skating rink was. Note: We had no idea where we were going and can't really speak Bahasa, so it took us a while to find it.

In the end we only found the place by giving up and making our way to Starbucks where we found a sign that said Skating. The place was amazing, and as a person that studies construction I was interested in seeing the ice skating rink built on the roof of the mall. 

My shoes were very tight, and although they fitted me length ways I found my feet were squished into them. I only got two blisters though, but we weren't skating for long as we were waiting for Berly's cousins to arrive at PVJ (Paris Van Java).

When I was skating I stacked it once, and when I got up I couldn't help notice the locals taking Pictures of me as Beryl helped me into a standing position once again. I guess they couldn't help taking a photo of the 'white girl' falling over. Beryl stacked it twice. It was really funny to watch!

 We are so Graceful!!!

When Beryl's cousins arrived it was off to The Duck King, a very nice Chinese restaurant. My family and friends are most probably going to laugh at this, but although I am one of the most annoying fussy eaters on the face of the planet, when I sat down with Beryl and ate what I am assuming is Duck amongst other things my mouth had a mini orgasm. It was SO good!!! Duck + Chinese Cuisine = MOUTH ORGY. I'm sorry for the descriptive equation but seriously, there is no other way to describe it, unless you come here and try it yourself. *wink*

 One of the Best Restaurant Meals I Have Ever Had

I went on this trip expecting to find spending Christmas and New Year away from my home in Australia hard and sad. But it was far from that. Instead I had heaps of fun, met new people, enjoyed new food and celebrated Christmas in a new style - On Ice in Another Country!

Merry Christmas and Have a Happy New Year!

Lots of Love - xo Shez